Sir Michael Angus: Chairman of Unilever

Wednesday March 24 2010, 5.40pm, The Times

Wednesday March 24 2010, 5.40pm, The Times

Sir Michael Angus is best remembered as chairman of Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer products group, from 1986-92, but, in an era before multiple directorships became questionable, his name was fashionably ubiquitious. After retiring from Unilever he held down the chairmanship of Whitbread, the brewer, while simultaneously presiding as deputy chairman of Boots and British Airways (BA) and as a non-executive director of NatWest Bank.

Angus was president of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) from 1992-94, a period that coincided with the tumultuous events of Black Wednesday in September 1992 when Britain shed the straitjacket of the exchange rate mechanism, the system of fixed exchange rates that was the precursor to the European single currency. Britain’s withdrawal was sparked by a ruinous run on the